Politics. Sex. Science. Art. You know, the good stuff.

About Stephanie Zvan

Stephanie Zvan is one of the hosts for the Minnesota Atheists' radio show and podcast, Atheists Talk. She serves on the board of Secular Woman. She speaks on science and skepticism in a number of venues, including science fiction and fantasy conventions.
Stephanie has been called a science blogger and a sex blogger, but if it means she has to choose just one thing to be or blog about, she's decided she's never going to grow up. In addition to science and sex and the science of sex, you'll find quite a bit of politics here, some economics, a regular short fiction feature, and the occasional bit of concentrated weird.
Oh, and arguments. She sometimes indulges in those as well. But I'm sure everything will be just fine. Nothing to worry about. Nothing at all.

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Secular Anti-Abortion Link Roundup

A friend is leading a discussion on reproductive justice and would like all the links related to last month’s blow-up in one place. I realized I’d tweeted many of them and, thus, had them collected in other posts already. This is just pulling them all together, though I’m sure I don’t have them all. If I missed anything that contributed to the discussion, please drop it in the comments.

Reactions and Counter-Reactions to David Silverman’s Statement in His CPAC Interview

Which atheists get exemption from criticism?–”JT Eberhard has invented a series of rationales for why people had the temerity to question the president of American Atheists (and he didn’t call me up to ask if any of them were valid!).”

David Silverman’s “Darwin Was Wrong” Moment–”Surely New Scientist’s terrible choice in creating the ‘Darwin Was Wrong’ cover happened not so long ago that the skeptical community has forgotten the sturm und drang that rightly came after it. And yet, here we are.”

A Secular Argument for Transphobia–”My previous post, Green, which I presented without comment, was actually a piece of creative nonfiction. It was about my family’s response to my transition: taking advantage of my disability to isolate me.”

The Secular ProLife Argument is Poop–”Some people are upset with Dave Silverman for Saying Some Things. And with Hemant Mehta for Letting Some Things Be Written. I am one of these people, and for many of the reasons that others have posted.”

Actual people with personalities, characters, wishes–“My first pregnancy turned Wahoonie-shaped around week ten and I needed an abortion (which is never counted as an abortion-abortion, but as a reasonable medical intervention because reasons. Probably because I suffered enough since I actually wanted to be pregnant very much).”

#UpForDebate–”So since so many in the rationalist skeptic community insist that the only reasonable thing is to have debates in which both sides of the issue with regards to human rights, I think I’ve decided to jump on the bandwagon.”

More up for debate–”Everything should be up for debate, right? It’s the hallmark of an open society. Nothing should be off the table – that way tyranny lies.”

On the Privilege of Discussing Abortion–”I was assured, however, that no one with a uterus could be found to engage in the debate. No professor on campus, no SSA speaker, was willing to discuss the issue.”

What Hemant Wouldn’t Print–“There is nothing that becomes new and fresh about the pseudoscience used to place unnecessary restrictions on abortion when the person using that pseudoscience is not religious.”

Rending the Tent: The Expansion Continues–“We respect Mehta’s absolute right to determine the content of his blog. We just question his decisions and what it means for the inclusion of women, feminists, and progressives in the atheist community.”

What Is #UpForDebate in the Secular Community?–“But at the same time, there are some questions that are clearly outside the bounds of legitimate discussion. No one would tolerate a presentation on whether we should have separate, segregated conventions for black and white secularists.”

Equal friendly time–“Hemant Mehta – the ‘friendly’ atheist – has a post about a creationist complaining about not getting equal time with Cosmos. Mehta is scornful.”

An Obvious Alternative–“But maybe there’s a way to prevent most abortions AND not force unwillingly pregnant people from staying pregnant. Maybe there’s a third way.”

Reactions and Counter-Reactions to Massimo Pigliucci’s Comments About Abortion Decisions

David Silverman and the scope of atheism–“You may have heard of the latest tempest in a teapot to hit the often tumultuous waters of modern atheism, this one surrounding American Atheists’ President David Silverman.”

Inalienable–“Also: philosophy types should not act like Spocks. They should not get all surprised and miffed when women who have an investment in abortion rights get pissed off by dispassionate discussion of whether women in fact should have abortion rights.”

More General Discussion of Secular Anti-Abortion Arguments and Tactics

What Secular Anti-Choicers Are Really Saying–”Giliell, professional cynic, -Ilk-, has decoded the language of those secular people who think women (or trans men) who had the temerity to have sex (or get raped) should carry the resulting pregnancy to term”.

Secular Pro-Life: A New Religion–“I was raised in a strict Judaic upbringing so I’ve always considered the pro-life position on abortion law to represent a two-fold threat; a threat to not just the rights of women but to the right of my religious group of upbringing to practice their religious beliefs when it comes to abortion.”

Planned Parenthood CHEATS DONORS?!–“And please be aware that making accusations like you made when you lack the tools to understand why what you’re doing is wrong, or have them but don’t care, is at best incredibly irresponsible, at worst ethically repugnant and dangerous.”

Secular Pro-Life Same Old Scare Tactics–“If I were to tell you that a purportedly secular anti-abortion group was engaging in the very same fear mongering and harassment of abortion providers that the largely Christian dominated pro-life groups do; would you be surprised?”

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About the author

Stephanie Zvan is one of the hosts for the Minnesota Atheists' radio show and podcast, Atheists Talk. She serves on the board of Secular Woman. She speaks on science and skepticism in a number of venues, including science fiction and fantasy conventions.
Stephanie has been called a science blogger and a sex blogger, but if it means she has to choose just one thing to be or blog about, she's decided she's never going to grow up. In addition to science and sex and the science of sex, you'll find quite a bit of politics here, some economics, a regular short fiction feature, and the occasional bit of concentrated weird.
Oh, and arguments. She sometimes indulges in those as well. But I'm sure everything will be just fine. Nothing to worry about. Nothing at all.

I’m struck by how empty of content the defenses of Silverman really are. Appeals to “loyalty” and accusations of tearing the movement apart (I’m looking at you, JT Eberhard), but (aside from Hemant’s “guest post”), no attempts to lay out why it’s a good idea for movement atheism/skepticism to embrace conservative principles at all.

The one thing it comes close to doing for the movement is robbing the religious right of political power by altering the republican party line. Shit secular arguments exist for all the social (non-)issues and we should consider which half of conservatism is easier to fight, libertarians or christians, and then manipulate them to our advantage.

Silverman fumbled that interview badly, as well as JT and Hemant and others compounding on his error, but the basic idea of setting the oligarchs against the theocrats seems sound to me. It helps us directly on abortion access, since they lose soul arguments as a “lalalalalala can’t hear you.”

Progress against the rest of the kyriarchy and keeping randroid taint out of the movement is still a concern, but it could start with seeding a secularist version of log cabin republicans.